Jennifer Allan-Hagedorn, Author of Sell with Soul

I read an article today that said...

... well, wait a minute. These days, you can find an article that says pretty much anything you want it to say. I get that. So as I paraphrase from this article, please be assured that I realize it's only one man's (or woman's) opinion and that there are a gazillion other opinions out there; many of which contradict this one.

Okay, back to...

I read an article today that said we're gonna be okay. By "we're" the author of the article meant the residents of the Gulf Coast specifically (including the critters) as well as the world at large. This oil spill will not be the end of life as we know it and if we're moderately patient, we WILL see life return to normal in a reasonable amount of time.

The basic premise of the article was that Mother Nature is amazingly resilient. She has an incredible ability to heal herself, even as we guests on her planet try harder and harder to knock her down. Her timeline may not be our timeline, but yes, we'll be okay.

I'd like to expand upon that to say that Human Nature is also amazingly resilient. Yes, while we're waiting for Mother Nature to do her thing, many human beings will suffer. Jobs and rental income will be lost, family businesses will go out of business and lifestyles will be compromised. But we human beings will pull through. We always do.

We're gonna be okay.

p.s. went to the beach yesterday after a week away and there wasn't any oil at all. Just a bunch of seaweed and shells. If you've been needing a beach vacation, but dread the crowds - come on down - no crowds here! Airfares are CHEAP too!

There's a thought that's been rolling around in my head the last few weeks. And I am going to proclaim right here, right now, on July 12, 2010, that I believe this thought will be the prevailing opinion soon, although many probably won't agree with me today.

What's my thought? Thanks for asking, I'll tell you.

I think we should stop cleaning up the beaches. Send the clean-up crews home. Let the oil pile up, if that's indeed what it does, and let Mother Nature do her thing.

WHAT?????

See, here's the thing. When you see those reports on The Weather Channel, CNN or your local news about the ugly nastiness on the Florida beaches, realize that the news crews select the most oil-infested section of beach they can find to report from. And yes, at the time of the report, it is nasty. But come back the next morning, or maybe even later that day and you know what? Much of that oil is gone. Not cleaned-up, mind you, but washed back to sea. And then you know what else? It comes back; maybe at the same beach, maybe half a mile down the way.

In fact, you can walk up and down the beach at any given time and find some beaches littered with tar balls and other practically tar ball-free. Walk that same stretch the next day and you'll find a different pattern of oil/no oil depending on the winds and tides.

So, why am I saying we should stop picking it up? Couple of reasons.

First, it costs money to clean it up - lots and lots of money. Yeah, I know we all want BP to pay and pay and pay, but should we really be wasting their money just to punish them? Let's be practical and realize that BP does not have a bottomless pocket and if they run out of money, no one wins.

Second, it's questionable whether the clean-up efforts are doing any good at all, and some say they're doing more damage than good. Now that much of the onshore oil is in the form of little oil pebbles (as opposed to dog-poop-sized tar balls), it's tough to imagine that it's even possible to clean it up and I wonder how much of the current clean-up efforts are purely for show.

Actually, I don't wonder; I have inside information from a reliable source that even though some are beginning to question the practicality of the clean-up efforts, no one is willing to say it out loud for fear of the public outcry.

So, I'll say it. Out Loud. Let's stop cleaning up the beaches and focus our time, money and energy on keeping the crap OFF the shore.

Let Mother Nature do her thing. She's actually quite competent and might do a far better job than we are.

Since I live here on beautiful (yes, it's still beautiful) Pensacola Beach, I'm often asked what it's "really" like. Is the media exaggerating... or underplaying the truth? Is there REALLY oil on the beach? Does it stink? And from those who have summer vacation plans here - Should I cancel?

Well, I have nothing to gain or lose from telling you the truth. You aren't renting a condo from me, so I have no motivation to downplay the reality of the situation (not that the local property managers are doing this, but it's human nature to wonder). Nor am I an activist hoping to further my cause by making it sound worse than it is.

I'm just a regular person who walks on the beach, eats at the restaurants, swims in the water and breathes the air every single day.

"Is there really oil on the beach?"
Yes, there really is oil on the beach. Not the sort of oil you might be envisioning - it's not sludge that you have to wade through like a shallow La Brea Tar Pit or anything, but at this point, it's impossible to avoid. When it first came ashore back in June, it was mostly dog-poop-size globs affectionately known as "tar balls" that tended to cluster in certain areas one day and others the next. But there were still stretches of seemingly oil-free beach, and the tar balls were easy to step around.

However, in the last week or two, that's changed. The dog-poop-sized globs are now pebble-size and are pretty much everywhere. Oh, there are still the larger blobs, and even some cow-patty-size ones, but they aren't as prevalent as the pebble blobs.

If you'd never heard of the oil spill, and never before seen the white beaches of the Florida Panhandle, you might not even see anything amiss at first. But yes, there is definitely oil on the beach.*

"Can I still walk on the beach?"
Yes. You may get oil on your feet (DON'T touch it with your hands - it's icky), but it comes off fairly easily with soap and water. It doesn't hurt or sting or smell (see below); I walk on the beach twice a day and still enjoy the heck out of it.

"Does the air smell bad?"
No, surprisingly, it doesn't. As far as I can tell, the oil has no smell at all. When I step outside my door in the morning, I just smell flowers and salt air, and it's every bit as exhilarating as it's always been.

That said, there have been a few days where there IS a toxic smell in the air, but it doesn't seem to be related to the oil on the shore; I assume it's the wind bringing in fumes from the oil burning offshore. It doesn't last; if you do run into a stinky day, just pretend it's pouring down rain, stay inside and watch movies. It'll pass.

"Is it safe to swim in the Gulf?"
I don't know. I do swim when the water looks clear, but I can't swear it's a good idea. When I can see tar balls in the surf, I stay out - mainly because I can't stand the thought of getting that stuff in my hair. However, the other side of the island - the Santa Rosa Sound side - has nice little beaches and a great beach atmosphere, so if you're nervous about swimming in the Gulf, trot on over the other side and enjoy the Sound.

"Jennifer, be honest with me - is it still pretty?"
Yes. It's still pretty. Not AS pretty as it was, but still more beautiful than just about any other beach I've been on (and that's a lot of beaches). The water is still clear and emerald green, the sunrises and sunsets still spectacular, and the sand is still white, although not as startling white as before. If you happen to go to a beach that is covered with nastiness and/or clean-up crews, just relocate down the way a bit and it's likely you'll find one that's not.

*Conditions change day to day, even hour to hour. One beach might be nearly pristine in the morning, gunked up in the afternoon, and then clean again at sunset. Another beach a mile to the east might be gunky at sunrise, clean at noon, and still clean at sunset.

"Should I cancel my Pensacola Beach vacation?"
I can't answer that for you. If you come, I think you'll have a fine time and maybe even feel as if you were a part of history. You'll enjoy a resort vacation, in the height of the season, without the stress of the traditional high-season crowds. You can get a waterfront table on a Saturday night. You can probably get a Gulf-view room for a fraction of the cost it was last year or will be next year. You may not need a reservation to rent a wave-runner or go parasailing. You won't have to sit in traffic for hours getting on or off the Island.

And of course, if you come, you can buy me a Bushwacker... or two.

Have other questions I can answer for you? Just ask!

* Okay, so I wrote this blog yesterday afternoon intending to post it today. Later I went for my regular sunset walk and was stunned to find that there was NO oil on my beach. None. Zippo. Apparently, the winds are carrying the mess west over the next few days, so the beach is clean. Which has inspired a follow-up blog which will very likely raise a few eyebrows. Goody.

Made a decision. Not a life-changing one and I hope I (or you) don't lose any sleep over it, but I've decided I'm gonna keep writing about the Disaster in the Gulf here on Active Rain. Some have asked me (nicely) to NOT talk about it anymore; that they'd prefer I focus my blog on real estate where it probably belongs, but... I just cain't seem to help myself.

So, here's the deal. Probably once a week, I'll talk about the oil spill. If you don't wanna read my thoughts about the oil spill, you have my blessing to skip right by that day's post. I will return to Real Estate Talk in the following day or two, so please don't write me off as a right-wing nut-job who writes inappropriate content on a real estate-specific platform.

Oh, speaking of winginess, I won't promise to be politically correct. In fact, I can pretty much promise not to be. I see a lot of nonsense going on here along the Gulf of Mexico and while I doubt my one little voice will change anything... well... you never know. So, again, if political INcorrectness isn't your thing, it's probably best if you avoid my oil-spill-related posts. I'll try to make it obvious in the title which ones they are.

With that said, I need to run - it's my day in court! (Read more here). I'll just sign-off with a few photos from the 4^th of July here on Pensacola Beach... enjoyed by me and the ten or twenty other people who were in town...

That's me in the middle of the nearly-empty Pensacola Beach parking lot on Saturday, July 3rd at 1pm. If you don't like crowds, THIS is the place to be! (seriously)

4th of July weekend on Pensacola Beach... not exactly Business as Usual, eh?

(the dark specs in the sand are tiny little blobs of oil - used to be you could avoid the tar-balls by stepping carefully around them, but no more. They don't seem to be as sticky as they were before, though.)

One nice(?) thing about an oil spill - it's no problem getting a waterfront table even on a Saturday night... even on a holiday weekend. Sigh... We renamed the famous Pensacola Beach "Bushwacker" to be the "Oil SlickWacker." Okay, so that's not all that funny...

I live on the Gulf Coast, but I don't sell real estate here. I'm wondering if anyone else is, either. Selling real estate, that is. It's kind of hard to imagine that buyers wouldn't be skittish and hesitant to invest in an area that is pretty much Ground Zero for the "worst environmental disaster in American history."

In my own little self-centered world, I am eternally grateful that my livelihood does not directly depend on the local economy of this (still) beautiful place I call home. But I certainly see the pain, fear and suffering on the faces all around me and I can't help but ask myself what I would do if the source of my income was suddenly washed away in a sea of oil.

I haven't come up with a good answer yet to that question - "What would I do if I sold real estate here?" Would I pack up and leave for greener, less oily pastures? Would I race out and look for a "real" job before they're all snapped up by my also-suddenly-outta-business neighbors? Would I sit tight, live off my credit cards and hope for the best? Would I take my entrepreneurial personality and start up a new business that is not dependent on the local economy?

I don't know.

What would you do?

(If you'd like to see my photo album of the oil spill here in Pensacola Beach, just go here: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=5636982&l=b8766e1a1f&id=760985801)